Not all touchscreen phones are created equal ¶
MSNBC’s Scott Taves discusses the differences between resistive and capacitive touch screens. Good introduction for those like me who don’t know much.
(Thanks again, Alex.)
Flipped Types ¶
Jon Tan on the differences between print and web typography:
Sometimes, flipping things around can be a useful mental exercise. It can raise a wry smile. An idle comparison between print and web typography was one of those times.
(Thanks, Alex.)
Consider the Philosopher ¶
James Ryerson on David Foster Wallace as a philosopher:
Wallace was especially concerned that certain theoretical paradigms — the cerebral aestheticism of modernism, the clever trickery of postmodernism — too casually dispense with what he once called “the very old traditional human verities that have to do with spirituality and emotion and community.” He called for a more forthright, engaged treatment of these basic truths. Yet he himself attended to them with his own fractured, often-esoteric methods. It was a defining tension: the very conceptual tools with which he pursued life’s most desperate questions threatened to keep him forever at a distance from the connections he struggled to make.
Undrln ¶
As Gruber puts it:
Sort of like Digg or Reddit but for advertising and graphic design.
Twistori ¶
Interesting Twitter app. Mostly I like the elegant design. (via Neil Makhija)
The Response to Newsweek ¶
Andrew Sullivan responds to Lisa Miller’s cover story that makes the religious case for marriage equality, and the reactions that have followed:
And in the end, a Christianity resistant to truth and terrified of love is the real objective disorder.
Bang ¶
One of the most insightful and eloquent things I have ever read of John Gruber’s:
Consider the Big Bang. One moment there was nothing, except for everything condensed into a single infinitely dense point. Then, one minuscule sliver of a second later: the universe. Nothing was yet formed, all the true work of forming stars and galaxies remained ahead, but the framework, the laws of physics, were set, and the rest was thereafter inevitable.
This is what everyone contemplating a new creative endeavor craves: that in the moment it turns real, to get it right. To frame it in such a way that the very act of framing propels the project toward an inexorable destiny.
You want to get it right because getting it right can make everything easier thereafter. But really, it’s because getting it wrong can be devastating. You might wind up putting thousands of man hours of work into a project that was doomed by a decision that was made in a second at the inception.
After that moment of conception, what it is, however nascent, however raw, becomes part of the process. You’re adding to it. Changing it. Removing parts of it. But there is an it, where before there was not. There’s something magic and magnificent and frightening about that part in the creative process before there is an it, when you decide just what it should be.
Philosophy Bites in iTunes Best of 2008 ¶
Congratulations to David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton. I’m an avid (if infrequent) listener.
Textpattern 4.0.7 ¶
How did I miss this?
(Maybe because my new obsession is Chyrp.)
Is This Your Paper On Single Serving Sites? ¶
“Yes.” Ryan Greenberg analyzes and discusses so-called “single serving sites.” I haven’t had a chance to read the full piece yet, but I love the design, and the idea is great.
Mr. and Mrs. Right ¶
Great essay in Vanity Fair by Bob Colacello on Pat and Bill Buckley:
William F. Buckley Jr., the intellectual force behind the modern American conservative movement, and his fashionable wife, Patricia, may have seemed to be a study in contrasts—Auntie Mame and the Absent-minded Professor, Pericles and Cleopatra—but those who knew them best understood how in tune they were mentally, morally, politically, and romantically. As Kissinger noted at her memorial, “Theirs was one of the great love stories of our time. The combination of Pat and Bill brought about a binary reaction that perhaps only a nuclear physicist could explain.” One of the clearest signs of the depth of their affection was the fact that each called the other by the same nickname: Ducky.
Ignoring the Market ¶
James Surowiecki on the odd behavior of the Republicans during the process of determining the fate of the auto industry:
It’s quite a time for the G.O.P. to decide that actually the market doesn’t have a clue.
A conversation with Tom Friedman ¶
Nice conversation between Charlie Rose and NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman He was also profiled in the New Yorker in November, but unfortunately the article is only available to subscribers.
His talk with Charlie Rose gives a good idea of his thoughts and opinions on a wide range of current issues. A great watch.
Not My Gorilla ¶
John Gruber basically gives the “fuck you” to Internet Explorer users. I tend to design the same way as he does these days:
I have no idea whether the DF Paraphernalia store is even legible under IE, because I didn’t even bother to check. It almost certainly doesn’t look “right”. I crafted the CSS using Safari, then checked it in Firefox, and I called it done.
Neither this site nor Midnight Breakfast have been checked in IE. At least, not by me. As Gruber puts it:
There are a lot of people who’d be a lot happier if they stopped worrying about other people’s 800 pound gorillas.
Midnight Breakfast ¶
“Hi. We exist now.”
Google Zeitgeist 2008 ¶
Guess who was the number one riser? (via John Gruber)
The end of GM? ¶
Free Exchange on the failed auto industry bailout:
This is not a huge surprise. It’s still possible that something will come out of the legislature, but it’s difficult to see how anything other than some sort of bankruptcy gets past Senate Republicans. The interesting questions, then, are whether GM was being honest when it said it couldn’t get through December without $4 billion from the government, and what will Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson do when Rick Wagoner comes to them saying that he needs TARP funds immediately or GM will declare bankrupcty then and there.
It’s hard to imagine that Mr Paulson will turn GM down after the Lehman business, particularly over the matter of $4 billion or so, but stranger things have happened.
Dylan Thomas Reads to Dr. Dre Beat ¶
As my friend Rebecca points out, it actually works. (via brothercyst)
The Flowers Personified Illustrations ¶
My friend Cat is working on an essay about floriography and found this neat electronic transcription of an 1847 book The Flowers Personified. These scanned illustrations from the book are delightful.
Chris Glass ¶
Great new find. (Thanks, Rebecca.)
Kiss of Deaf ¶
Reuters reports:
A young woman in southern China has partially lost her hearing after her boyfriend ruptured her eardrum during an excessively passionate kiss, local media reported Monday.
(Thanks, Molly.)
Machines that Almost Fall Over ¶
By artist Michael Kontopoulos. Watch the video. (via Adam Stepinski)
Car Genetic Algorithm ¶
I could watch this for hours. Andy Baio found it in the comments of this Reddit link. From the author:
This is a GA I wrote to design a little car for a specific terrain. It runs in real-time in Flash.
The fitness function is the distance travelled before the red circles hit the ground, or time runs out. The degrees of freedom are the size and inital positions of the four circles, and length, spring constant and damping of the eight springs. The graph shows the “mean” and “best” fitness.
Pretty cool stuff. Says a lot about how many iterations genetic algorithms take. This one is fairly simple and still takes a few hours.
Live Stills from Sleeping Beauty ¶
Just found this great collection of photos through Cartoon Brew, part of Google’s Life archive. My favorites are the stills of Maleficent. The actress reminds me of Emil Jannings’ Mephisto in Murnau’s Faust.
Sketchy Comedy ¶
Speaking of Pulitzers, Nancy Franklin asks for one in her piece on “30 Rock” in this week’s New Yorker (“Yoo-hoo, Pulitzer Prize committee, over here!”). I definitely agree with her central point:
The show’s true claim to fame, and a reason never to miss an episode, is Alec Baldwin, whose comic magnetism is so strong I’m surprised it hasn’t caused weather disturbances. He doesn’t steal scenes; he makes them rise and shine. Baldwin has to know how good he is, but he wears it lightly, and you actually take pleasure from how much pleasure you’re taking from his performance—just as you do, say, when Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby sing that put-’er-there-pal number “Well, Did You Evah?,” in “High Society.” They know that we know who they are, and Baldwin knows that we know who he is. And yet he plays well with others, and allows the star of the show to be the relationship between him and Liz.
Pulitzer Prizes Expand to Include Web-Only News Outlets ¶
Joe Strupp in Editor & Publisher:
For the first time, the Pulitzer Prizes will accept submissions from online-only news outlets, but require that they be “text-based” submissions from news organizations that are updated at least weekly and include original reporting.
Don We Now ¶
Nice video by Jules Skloot. She was a dance grad student while I was at Sarah Lawrence. She basically only does amazing work.
Picturing Business in America ¶
The dot drawings that you see all over the Wall Street Journal are apparently called “hedcuts”:
In the spring of 2002, The Wall Street Journal donated a group of hedcuts, representing some of the United States’s foremost business leaders of recent years, to the National Portrait Gallery. These portrait drawings, based on photographs, attest to The Journal’s interest in the “primacy of the individual in both political and social systems.” Dedicated to preserving American history by collecting portraits of women and men who have significantly influenced our culture, the National Portrait Gallery welcomes this gift, which helps to chronicle the history of business in our nation.
This exhibition explores the development, the technique, and the implications of these illustrations. It also explores the biographies of a number of individuals whose unique contributions to American business and culture the Journal has reported during the past quarter-century.
Narcissus Places a Personal Ad ¶
This Short Imagined Monologue from McSweeney’s by Matteson Perry is the secret to my recent auditioning successes. Let’s hope it holds up tomorrow as well. I take the liberty to make a couple of cuts:
I’ll start with a little bit about myself. First off, I’m handsome. Very handsome. So handsome, in fact, that people have called me “beautiful” and “gorgeous,” terms typically reserved for beautiful women. That’s how good-looking I am. Whatever. I don’t want to get into which term of beauty best describes my attractiveness, but, rest assured, you will not be disappointed. (I know I never am.) When you first see me without a shirt, you will probably lose your breath a little bit, as if you had just fallen into cold water. Don’t worry, this is normal. Get used to it, because I don’t wear my shirt much. If I had to name my best asset, I’d probably say everything. My calves are like perfectly cooked turkey legs, you could use my chin as a straight edge while working on a blueprint, and my skin is the color of a perfectly roasted marshmallow. Dozens of people have gotten “lost” in my eyes (I include myself in that count), so consider yourself forewarned! I’ve been asked by more than one child to be their new daddy. (Don’t interpret this to mean I like kids—-I’m just saying I’m way more handsome than a lot of fathers.) My interests include gazing into lakes, pools, mirrors, freshly waxed cars, shop windows, metal elevator doors, the back of a spoon, and most anything else that’s reflective. Once you see me you’ll understand. I like to think of myself as pretty laid-back and down to earth. I love to travel. My favorite food is pizza.
Short. Imagined. Monologue. Perfect.
Mumbai After the Smoke Has Cleared ¶
From The Big Picture. I have no words.
Is the Gender Gap Narrowing? ¶
According to The Boston Globe:
Men are losing jobs at far greater rates than women as the industries they dominate, such as manufacturing, construction, and investment services, are hardest hit by the downturn. Some 1.1 million fewer men are working in the United States than there were a year ago, according to the Labor Department. By contrast, 12,000 more women are working.
This gender gap is the product of both the nature of the current recession and the long-term shift in the US economy from making goods, traditionally the province of men, to providing services, in which women play much larger roles, economists said. For example, men account for 70 percent of workers in manufacturing, which shed more than 500,000 jobs over the past year. Healthcare, in which nearly 80 percent of the workers are women, added more than 400,000 jobs.
Gay Marriage And The GOP ¶
Andrew Sullivan on the Prop 8 voting breakdown:
The trouble for the GOP is that this is one of very few issues on which Asians, Latinos and blacks vote for them. But it reinforces the identity of the party as primarily that of white, less educated fundamentalist voters. I’ve no doubt there’s a place for such a party in American politics. I also have little doubt it will never be a majority.
History in the Making ¶
At least David Denby offers a powerful performance by Frank Langella in the upcoming Frost/Nixon to look forward to:
Langella has mastered the rumbling voice with its occasional touch of animal growl. He leans forward as he walks, almost apelike as his arms hang down; he gets Nixon’s heaviness of bearing, the awkwardness, the grotesque sentimentality, and also his power, the dangerousness even in retreat. This man notices many things, including any eccentricity of dress, any hint of weakness in his opponent, and he’s cagey about offering signs of friendliness—an anecdote, a bit of personal advice—that would make Frost falter.
But you can really tell all that from the trailer.
The Existential Clown ¶
Nice little meditation on Jim Carrey by James Parker in this month’s Atlantic. Be sure to catch his video commentary.
The Moment ¶
According to the site, “The Moment is a blog that spans the T Magazine universe of fashion, design, food and travel.” How did I never find this before?
It’s Alaska! ¶
Gabe’s brilliant take on the Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin. Wonderful animation. He’s getting good at this stuff.
Instapaper Feedback ¶
Aaron Lammer:
[T]hank you for creating something that encourages, rather than replaces, thought.
Couldn’t agree more. (via Cameron Hunt)
Prop 8 The Musical ¶
Great cast. Short and sweet. Very funny. Made it all the way from Andy Baio to Rachel Maddow. (And may I just say – I love Neil Patrick Harris.)
Python 3.0 Release ¶
Looking forward to giving this a spin when I have a chance.
Super Obama World ¶
Pure brilliance. (Thanks, Beth.)